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MARIE MCCORMICK

Employee Engagement Process

Our work in the world is to change the nature of the conversation…. A conversation of ownership and possibility is the antidote to blame.

—Peter Block

Global Pharmaceutical Distribution

The distribution network of a global pharmaceutical firm was beginning a three-year journey to achieve a new strategic vision. Its improvement framework covered: quality, service, costs, and people/culture. While the first three areas had metrics in place, people/culture did not. The Employee Engagement Process was selected not only to quantify people/culture but also to evolve the culture itself toward greater engagement and shared responsibility.

The process began by educating managers, preparing them for a more open environment in which they shared information more freely and heard employee feedback without emotional resistance. This presurvey work was an important part of the change process. Once the managers were ready, the McCormick Employee Engagement Inventory (MEEI) was distributed to all 1,000 members of the Distribution Centers. Results were compiled but not analyzed and returned to managers and staff together in a series of site-specific “all hands” meetings. At these meetings, managers and frontline employees sat in mixed groups, first making sense of the data, then forming work groups to discuss team strengths and challenges, and finally planning implementation of suggested changes.

On the “strength” side, the team discussed that most employees—management and nonmanagement alike—felt real meaning in their work. They had a line of sight to the customer and knew that their role in distributing medications around the globe was of critical importance. They were able to “see from the whole.” On the “challenges” side of the equation, employees felt somewhat isolated from corporate, somewhat stagnated, and that the support they gave each other was clearly lacking. Suggestions that arose from work included a process for job rotation, self-imposed norms to eliminate site gossip, a process to better communicate company benefits to remote locations, and life-management courses to support employees with work-life issues.

Many of management’s preconceived priorities turned out to be quite different from what came out of the meetings. Both management and employees moved past a mind-set of “blame” to one of joint ownership, seeing from the whole and solving the problems together. One lasting outcome of the work was a cultural shift in the site’s management team. Center headquarters staff saw that the process positively impacted site safety, union avoidance, employee performance, attendance, and morale. The MEEI survey methodology has since been adopted for other company surveys, profoundly shifting how survey data is shared and used as an impetus for change across the organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT IS THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROCESS?

The McCormick Employee Engagement Inventory (MEEI), which is at the core of the process, is a 35-question instrument with content validity. Engagement—defined as a personal state of authentic involvement, contribution, and ownership—is characterized by seven scales:

HOW WAS THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROCESS DEVELOPED AND HOW HAS IT EVOLVED?

When developed in 1999, the MEEI was a radical departure from traditional survey methodologies. It resulted from the personal frustration of Fortune 100 company employees of more than 12 years with both the survey’s content and process. Every two years, all employees completed an extensive survey on workplace issues such as satisfaction with supervisor, pay, and other external factors. It excluded issues of substance, such as the impact of “my voice at work” or “finding meaning in my work” in relation to the whole. We would either see no survey results or we would see no action resulting from the survey. Frustrated with the lack of connection between the survey and any apparent change, the MEEI and the Employee Engagement Process sought to shift both the nature of the questions and how results were distributed and used. Thus, the Employee Engagement Process marries a survey that quantifies workplace culture with the employee as the locus of control with a process that is transparent, collaborative, employee driven, and action oriented. This process turns survey results analysis and action planning over to employees and managers through whole-system feedback and action meetings. Responsibility is spread across employee groups to create a more engaged workplace. The survey process catalyzes meaningful results and a real opportunity for engagement.

The MEEI survey instrument grew out of extensive research conducted for my Ph.D. I had been intrigued by the impact of high-participation methodologies like Future Search and the Conference Model on successful change initiatives. The first version of the MEEI sought to measure this impact. The scales and the questions were developed through analyzing focus group and interview data gathered from people who had participated in one or more large group organizational change initiatives. The seven scales are the apparent differentiators in successful change initiatives. For example, participants’ perceptions of the “big picture” and that “my voice is heard” both correlated highly with their ratings of the initiative’s success. Over time, the survey evolved to measure employee engagement not just during a change initiative, but generally.

Research performed in 2002 by the Philadelphia Area Human Resource Planning Group linked MEEI results to productivity, consistently showing that the better-producing units also had higher engagement scores.

HOW DOES THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROCESS WORK?

The Employee Engagement Process is similar to traditional survey methodology in that it follows the basic steps of survey localization, survey administration, and results compilation. It varies from traditional methodology in the transparency of the process; the content of the survey itself; the level of education prior to, during, and after the survey administration; the fact that results compilation is an important beginning rather than an end; and the systemwide involvement in action planning and implementation. The process:

• Supports managers in becoming more open to giving employees voice,

• Models a new way of working together, and

• Places change in the hands of employees (including managers) rather than in the hands of Human Resources or management alone.

Through individual analysis, group discussion, and action, people become more informed and accountable for their workplace. They learn that there isn’t a “them” that will make changes, but that they can make changes together. Figure 1 summarizes the process.

Figure 1. Employee Engagement Process

The process works particularly well in settings like manufacturing, health care, and education, in which the sense of ownership of frontline workers is particularly important and where it’s important to capture the knowledge of these employees. This empowerment is reinforced over and over again in the Employee Engagement Process.

Table of Uses

About the Author

Marie McCormick, Ph.D. ([email protected]), has led successful organization development consulting practices for the last ten years. For more than ten years prior to consulting, she held a unique blend of line and staff positions in a Fortune 100 company as it navigated the challenges of operating in an increasingly competitive and deregulated business environment. Her education and experience in the areas of psychology, operations, education, finance, marketing, and management provide her with a broad background and knowledge base to help her clients become more successful.

Where to Go for More Information

REFERENCE

McCormick, Marie T. “The Impact of Large Scale Participative Interventions on Participants.” Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University. Dissertation Abstracts International, 1999.

INFLUENTIAL SOURCES

Block, Peter, ed. The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion: A Guide to Understanding Your Expertise. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2001.

Oshry, Barry. Seeing Systems: Unlocking the Mysteries of Organizational Life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1995.

Whyte, David. The Heart Aroused—Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. New York: Doubleday, 1994.

ORGANIZATION

InSyte Partners—www.insytepartners.com

Creating profound change through work on the individual and systems levels.